Charlotte – Post Race Report

Denny Hamlin and the FedEx Ground Toyota Team Finish Ninth at Charlotte

On Thursday evening Denny Hamlin qualified 18th for Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a 28.107 second lap (192.123 mph) around the 1.5-mile oval in the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota. After his run he said, "The car was real good in race trim this afternoon but we got it too loose in qualifying trim. We've had some good finishes at this track and I think we have a car capable of running up front in the race."

When the green flag dropped Denny immediately began moving forward and by lap 24, when the first caution flew, he had advanced to 14th place.

By lap 50 he was running ninth and on lap 74 Denny pitted from sixth on his first green flag stop, taking four tires, fuel and a round of wedge in the left rear to loosen up the car in the corners.

Denny's second green flag stop on lap 125 saw him come in from the ninth position with Crew Chief Darian Grubb calling for four tires, fuel and a round of wedge in the right rear. He got a track bar adjustment under yellow on lap 172 and another one on lap 228 during a scheduled green flag stop, returning to action in 11th.

On lap 281 Denny pitted from 10th for tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment on his final green flag pit stop without losing a spot. On lap 306 there was another caution with Hamlin pitting from ninth and picking up two spots thanks to quick work from his FedEx Racing team.

When the checkers flew on lap 334 Brad Keselowski was the winner over Kasey Kahne with Denny's Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch finishing third and fifth respectively. Hamlin's FedEx Ground car came home ninth, his first top 10 result since Pocono in June.

"We had a pretty good car tonight", said Hamlin. "Our lap times during the race were just as fast as the leaders, we just never could get the track position we needed to challenge them".

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action on Sunday, October 20 at Talladega Superspeedway.